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Archive of ‘The Journey’ category

Stop Limiting God

/ Goals, The Journey / 25 Comments

Back in June, I wrote a post titled, “I’m not qualified”, about how we quickly believe the lie that we are not qualified for any leadership role. Think back to this key statement: God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Do you still feel unqualified? Maybe the root problem is that we limit God. We don’t believe that he can qualify us.

Has God put something on your heart to do, but you have pushed those thoughts away?

Maybe you doubt God’s power to make you qualified. Maybe you keep telling yourself that God could never make you more_____(Fill in the blank.)

Friends, stop telling yourself lies. (more…)

10 Tips for an Effective Quiet Time

/ Dear Friend Series, Relationship with Jesus, Resources, The Journey / 1 Comment

During busy seasons of life, spending time with God can be forgotten and easily pushed aside. Here are 10 ways to help you have a more effective quiet time.

Find your spot. Find a quiet spot, or a spot where you can focus.
Only bring what you need. Bring your Bible, journal, pen, and maybe a devotional book. Leave your computer at home because it can easily become a distraction.
Plan. Plan it into your schedule. Set a specific time and length each day.
Start with prayer. Ask God to give you wisdom to understand the scripture you read, and to help you focus on him.
Journal. Write down what God shows you. As you read scripture, God will teach you things. Write them down so you do not forget them. Write the verses out. This will help you learn the verse, and be able to look back later when God feels distant. (For more about journaling, read Why journal?)
Praise God. Worship God for who he is.
Thank God. Thank God for who he is and what he has done.
Confess your sins. Ask God to reveal any sins that are hurting your relationship with him.
Write things down. Write out your prayers and answered prayers. You can look back and see how God was faithful.
Close in prayer.

The summer is only half way over, so don’t give up! Pursue Jesus and purse spending time with him. I’ll be right there with you. =]

Join me in finding joy in the journey.

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Do you value Jesus because He is useful or because He is beautiful?

/ Devotional, Relationship with Jesus, The Journey / Comments Off

Lately, I’ve been asking myself why I value Jesus. Do I value him because he is useful or because he is beautiful?

It is easy to forget about the beauty of Jesus, and it is even easier to focus on your own needs and desires.

To figure out why I value Jesus, I went to my journal and looked at what I’ve been praying for. None of my recent prayers have been thanking Jesus or admiring Jesus. They have been about me and my wants.

Jesus, help my friend love me.
Jesus, help me rid my addiction to sugar.
Jesus, use me to further your kingdom.

Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me. Jesus, help me.

I’m selfish.

(more…)

Do you idolize your mentor?

/ Approval, Christian in College, College, Discipleship, The Journey / 3 Comments

During my freshman year at USF, I began to meet with an older women in Cru, a college ministry. She prepared lessons for me and helped me in my walk with Christ. I loved our discipleship time together. As a freshman, I had recently surrendered my life to Christ, so I was very excited to learn. Every word she spoke to me I held on to as if it was gold. I made her an idol. When the year ended, she left and I was devastated.

Our friendship was one of the most helpful, but also the most harmful, during these early stages of my walk with the Lord. Thankfully, Jesus made me realize the problem, and used everything to bring Him glory.

I hope to help you figure out now if you are in a similar situation before the problem gets worse.

Here are 4 ways to figure out if you idolize a friend, mentor, or leader in your life: (more…)

I’m Not Qualified | The Biggest Lie Women Believe

/ Approval, Believing Lies, Devotional, Goals, Resources, The Journey / 33 Comments

“I’m not qualified.”

In my opinion, this is the biggest lie that women believe when they’re thinking about doing ministry or joining a leadership team.

This thought first entered my mind when I was in high school.

I was trying to figure out what God was calling me to do. I was confused, unsure, and it did not help that people always asked me, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

Adults frequently ask this question. In high school, kids are between 14-18 years old. How do they expect someone to know what he or she wants to do for the rest of his or her life at such a young age?

During my 10th grade year of high school, I started to get the call that God wanted me to go into ministry. What ministry has meant to me has changed over the years, but I knew two things: that I wanted to help people and that God was pretty cool. Combining those two things seemed like a perfect option! But I believed a lie that I was not qualified.

So, when I was asked that question, I felt embarrassed to share with others my heart desire for my career, so I would always reply, “Orthodontist.”

This was the safest way to go. If I would say, “I don’t know.” Then, I would get additional questions, “Well, what is your favorite subject? Did you like math? How about teaching? Etc… Thus, I realized the safest thing to do was reply, “Orthodontist.” There were no follow up questions, just a nod of agreement and maybe an encouraging statement.

For a high schooler, it is extremely difficult to fully trust God with this subject. It is difficult to share with others when you are not 100% sure that this is what you will do. Students also worry about what others will think of their choice. I worried people would not understand or try and talk me out of it.

When I was thinking about going into ministry, I believed the lie that one had to be perfect. How could I help people in their walks with God when I was not perfect?

Again, when I was asked to lead a Bible study in Cru my freshman year of college I did not want to step up and lead because I thought I was not qualified. How can I lead other women when I have my own issues to work through?

It is common to respond to God by saying, “I can’t. I’m not qualified.” I’ve heard this in high school. I’ve heard this in college.

My response now is, “Well what is qualified? Name one person in the Bible who was qualified.”

Abraham lied about Sarah.
Moses stuttered.
Noah was a drunk.
Jacob was a liar.
Joseph was abused by his brothers.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah was said to be too young.
David had an affair.
Elijah was suicidal.
The Samaritan woman had multiple divorces.
Jonah ran away from God.
Peter denied Jesus.
The disciples fell asleep while praying.
And there are more examples found all over scripture!

Friends, if you are thinking of going into ministry, leading a Bible study, or joining the leadership team at your church, I want you to remember one thing: God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

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I was failing, yet Jesus kept pursuing me.

/ Christian in College, My Guest Posts, Relationship with Jesus, Surrender Life to Jesus, The Journey / Comments Off

Hello friends!

I am so excited today because I get to be the first ever blogger to share her story on the Set Apart Spotlight!

She is Set Apart is a Christian ministry with this vision: to see women of all ages un-ashamed of what makes them different, to be bold and embrace what sets them apart and not conform to worldly standards. (Romans 12:2) This ministry was founded by a wonderful new friend of mine, Tierraney Richardson. Later in the week, her story will be featured on my blog, so make sure to check it out!

Here is the link for my quest post, “SET APART SPOTLIGHT: Joy Skarka.”

Why did God create us?

/ Bible Study, Devotional, Relationship with Jesus, The Journey / 11 Comments

Have you ever wondered why God created us?

Think about a statue. On my college campus, we have a statue of Martin Luther King. What is the purpose of that statue? A statue is an image erected to display an event or a person who has achieved something in their lives that we want to remember. The image points to the original person and brings them glory.

We were created to be God’s statues and images.

Genesis 1:26-27:“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them.”

God made human beings in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of himself.

Today there are over 7 billion people in the world. 7 billion people created in the image of God. 7 billion people who point to God.

God created us for his glory.

Here are some additional verses and questions to reflect on:

Isaiah 6:3, Romans 1: 19-20, Isaiah 49:3, Isaiah 61:1-3
How are you pointing the world to God’s glory? For example, we can reflect God’s glory in our love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and faithfulness.
How are you not pointing the world to God’s glory?
How will your thinking and feelings change if you truly understand why God created you?

Important to note: God does not need us to make him glorious. He does not need to be enhanced. When he calls us to glorify him, we don’t make him glorious, he already is. Being a statue for God means we are called to show and display his glory.

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The Power of Your Story (Part 3)

/ Christian in College, Relationship with Jesus, Sexual Abuse, Surrender Life to Jesus, The Journey, Your Story / 9 Comments

I love talking about how powerful our stories are, because when I realized this my life changed. I began to understand why I needed to share my story with other women. Through this, I experienced so much growth in my walk with God!

In the past two weeks I’ve blogged about how powerful our stories are. Here is why:

Our stories have as much power as Jesus’ death on the cross, and are extensions of God’s power! (Click here to read the post.)
God has an eternal perspective and knows how each event in our lives will be used to impact eternity! (Click here to read the post.)
Finally, the third reason why our stories are powerful is because vulnerability leads to growth.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

When we admit our weaknesses to others, God has an opportunity to be glorified. We are powerless. God is powerful.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Have you ever gone through a difficult time, reached the other end, and thought, “How in the world did I get through this?”

God.

My freshman year of college I was in a ditch of loneliness, sadness, and anger. At that time, I never thought I could be where I am now. Now, every time I am vulnerable and I share my story with someone of how God healed me, I let my weaknesses show God’s strength. I get to give God all the glory.

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” 2 Tim 1: 8

When Jesus was dying on the cross, everyone thought he was a complete failure, except God. They believed that all he had done was a lie and was now dying a useless death. They didn’t know God’s plan or look at the bigger picture because they focused on the now.

Three days later they saw things differently. God’s plan became clear.

Friends, we are just like this! In the midst of pain and struggling we question God. Then when we see the other side, we see how God used that situation to glorify himself. We begin to think differently.

I love journaling. When I go back and re-read old journals I can truly see that God has used my story to bring him glory. Here is one prayer I wrote in November of my freshman year of college, “God, I know someday I will see how you’ve made a beautiful thing out of this.”

God has answered my prayers. He has fixed my broken heart. And he can fix yours too. He can and will make a beautiful thing out of all your pain and suffering.

Ladies, be vulnerable with the other women in your life. You don’t know what they are going through. Maybe you have similar stories, and God wants to use you both to help each other.

Allow God to use your story to bring him glory.

Check out: The Power of Your Story (Part 1) and The Power of Your Story (Part 2)

I hope this post has been encouraging! Check out my other posts about the power of our stories by clicking the photo below!

The Power of Your Story (Part 2)

/ Christian in College, Relationship with Jesus, Sexual Abuse, The Journey, Your Story / 27 Comments

Last week, I blogged about how powerful our stories are. (Click here to see it!)

Our stories have as much power as Jesus’ death on the cross. If you are a believer in Christ and have a personal relationship with him, God can and will use your story to bring him glory. Your story is an extension of God’s power!

The second reason why your story is powerful is because our God has an eternal perspective. God knows how each event in our lives will be used to impact eternity!

Isaiah 55:8-11: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,  so are my ways higher than your ways  and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven  and do not return there but water the earth,  making it bring forth and sprout,  giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,  so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;  it shall not return to me empty,  but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,  and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

We have to understand that God is SO much bigger than our tiny little brains.

Our thoughts are smaller than his thoughts. Our plans are smaller than his plans. Think of eternity as a line. It is a line that goes on and on and on forever. We are just one dot on that line, so we only see our dot and a little before and after. But God, the Creator of the line, sees the whole line! He knows how one dot will impact the next.

Last summer, I had the pleasure of going to Miami for 10 weeks on Miami Summer Project with a ministry called Cru.

Before going on project, I prayed that God would bring one other women who had been sexually abused. I desired to use my story to help someone else heal. One day in Miami, I went on a walk with one of my friends. She was upset and said that she didn’t know why she was telling me this, but wanted to tell me her story. She had been raped her freshman year of college. I was the first person she had told.

God planned that both her and I would be in Miami that summer. She felt weird inside because the Holy Spirit was telling her to share her deepest pain with me. We cried and talked together, and I began to understand that God would use my story to glorify himself. That summer I got to help my friend begin a journey of healing, and I continued healing by viewing my life through God’s eternal perspective.

Later that week, I found out that 5 other girls on project had been sexually abused.

I prayed for 1 girl, God gave me 6. Before project, we each focused on our dot and our hurt, but God was focused on how our hurt could help others.

Here is my favorite part of the story! After project, one of the women felt called to share her story with other ladies, specifically the Greek women on her campus. She went to each chapter meeting and shared her story. She shared what she had gone through, how God redeemed her, saved her, and how now is experiencing real love in a relationship with God.

Later that semester, Cru at her college hosted an event called Girls’ Night Out by Marian Jordan. At the event, they witnessed 98 girls pray to give their life to Christ, most of them were women from sororities that my friend shared her story to.

Dear reader, my friend realized that God could take her story and use it to change women’s eternities! He can do the same with yours! Your story is powerful! I challenge you to stop focusing on your dot and focus on the line. Let God use your story to impact others eternities! Love, Joy

Check out: The Power of Your Story (Part 1) and The Power of Your Story (Part 3)

I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!

Tired of giving up on goals?

/ Goals, Resources, The Journey / 6 Comments

This week I went to lunch with one of my best friends from high school. I absolutely love this girl and love spending time with her. She doesn’t realize it, but she always teaches me lessons about myself and God. During our lunch together, we were very vulnerable and both shared our current struggles. What struck both of us, was that most of our current struggles were the same as our past struggles.

She said, “This year is going to be different. I’m going to work on these issues. It is going to be a better year.”
Déjà vu. I’ve heard this before.

I told her that she said the same thing last summer, she said, “Wow, that is depressing.”

After lunch, I couldn’t get those words out of my mind. Like my friend, I am bad at following through on goals. At the start of new semesters I always have new goals. Here are some examples:

I’m going to stick to a healthy diet and work out regularly.
This semester will be different, because I will pray more!
Finally, maybe this semester I’ll actually understand how Jesus can satisfy my desire to be married.

Sadly, I never last longer than a week or two at attempting to reach these goals. I give up or just simply forget about the goals. The end of the semester comes, and I say to myself, “Wow, that is depressing.” I don’t want to continue this cycle. I don’t want to spend my whole life making goals only to never check off the boxes. I want to see growth in my life. My dad always told me that when we make goals they have to be specific and have multiple sub-goals to reach each one. Here are my main goals and sub-goals to reach them:

1. Grow closer to God

Spend time with God
Read my daily chapters of the Bible on my Bible app plan
Pray for 10 minutes

2. Live a more healthy life

Exercise at least 30 minutes
Healthy snacks
Don’t eat past 10

3. Be content in this stage of singleness

No more romantic comedies

For June, I am trying something new. I am putting my goals into a excel document and checking them off daily to help me remember them. I am sick of being depressed that my goals are not being met. Below is a screen shot so you can understand what I’m talking about.

Important to note:

Make spending time with God a goal for this month. It is easy to look at this as a list of rules to follow, and think if I follow these rules then I will grow. That isn’t always true, because the change begins in the heart. God is the only one who can change our heart, so we have to spend time with him. As I was writing this, the same friend texted me saying she had been thinking about our conversation as well. In the car she heard a Christian radio station say, “We have to see God’s way in all we do instead of living by the rules.” Make sure you are not just following rules you made for the month, but that you are actively trying to follow God’s plan for you and become all that he made you to be.
If you miss a day, do not get mad at yourself and give up. It is okay. Some of the goals you set for yourself are going to be impossible to achieve every day in our busy lives. The important thing is to not give up.
Find a friend to be accountable with. For example, I’m getting my parents involved. The three of us are going to put our lists on the fridge to hold each other accountable.

What are some goals that you tend to give up on? Do you repeat them over and over again?

If yes, join me on this journey. Below there is a blank pdf of the chart I made. Print it out and fill in your goals.

Together we can experience growth.

Click here for pdf: Blank June Goals pdf

I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!

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